


a tangerine in these troubling times

by floweren



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: (re: constantly), /lh, Canon Compliant, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentioned Citron (A3!), Mentioned Hyoudou Juuza, Mentioned Igawa (A3!), Mentioned Nanao Taichi, Mentioned Rurikawa Yuki, Mentioned Summer Troupe (A3!), Mentioned Usui Masumi, Pre-Relationship, References to Macbeth, Tangerines, UPDATE . I AM NOT THE FIRST TANGERINE TAG IM HURT, ah well!, delighted to say i am the first person to tag tangerines, do people not mention igawa or do i have his name wrong, hope im the first tangerine (food) tag on a3! fandom though huff, how could i have forgotten him, i lov them . natsugumi best friends, i think, is that all the tags . i hope thats all the tags idka im too sleepy, maybe ooc im sorry, there is a tiny yuki in tenmas head that calls him a hack every now and again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:49:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27407596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/floweren/pseuds/floweren
Summary: Sakuya is at the riverside. Alone./Tenma does his best to comfort his friend (re: crush).
Relationships: Sakuma Sakuya/Sumeragi Tenma
Comments: 20
Kudos: 74





	a tangerine in these troubling times

**Author's Note:**

> hihi this is my first a3! fic pls be kind  
> i'm [@BANRIROT](https://twitter.com/BANRIROT) on twitter heehoo  
> ib my convo w [jo](https://twitter.com/tsoomugi) who was kind enough to help brainstorm this w me last week god bless  
> beta read by [bee](https://twitter.com/H0NEYYBAE) <33

Sakuya is at the riverside. Alone.

Tenma notices this much on his “detour” home from school. He doesn’t know how he got here, since Igawa couldn't drop him off at the dorms like normal, but Sakuya’s there, and he tells himself that fate must’ve pushed him there.  _ Not  _ the fact that he has no sense of direction.

He knows that Sakuya likes to sit on a bench by the riverside alone sometimes, standing if he deems it appropriate, reciting lines from whatever script he couldn’t tear himself away from. His voice would echo some days, one of Shakespeare’s soliloquies crashing over those within earshot like a merciless wave, and some days his voice would barely be above a whisper, Tsuzuru’s sleep-addled ramblings dripping like honey off of Sakuya’s tongue. 

Tenma would join him when he could, when Taichi had catch-up to do or Juza was planning on visiting a cafe with Muku. He'd ask Igawa to drop him off there, a little ways away from Sakuya just so he could listen before being noticed. He enjoys hearing the words that Sakuya chose to embody for the day, have them wrap around him like a storm and a blanket all the same, make him stumble and stutter and clench his fists. 

Once Sakuya noticed him, Tenma would give Sakuya pointers — on delivery, on stance, on expression. If Sakuya was struggling and Tenma was feeling brave, Tenma would use his hands. He'd carefully position Sakuya's shoulders ("I'm just pushing them back a little; it'll make the character seem more confident as a war hero") and adjust the angle of his hips ("Shakespeare doesn't tend to use stage directions, but I think it'll make more sense for Macbeth to be more open here") until Sakuya fit the frame of Tenma's painting of the character. Sakuya does the same for him, sculpting Tenma into how he believed the character ought to be portrayed with a gentle touch of his hand against Tenma's jaw and a finger drawing out the wrinkles in Tenma's forehead — "See, Macbeth is still shaken from the witches’ prophecies, so I think he'd likely be more on edge" — and Tenma would adamantly deny the heat that bubbles under the skin of his cheeks when Sakuya points it out, wide eyed. 

Then they'd talk and talk, Sakuya giggling about seeing Masumi fall asleep at his desk as he was passing by the classroom and Tenma huffing about a maths assignment that had content he swore wasn't covered in the lesson. It'd be loud, what with Sakuya making up two thirds of Spring Troupe's energy reserve and Tenma being all too used to yelling to be heard over what he'd (affectionately) call a herd of elephants, but it created a warmth you could bask in.

Today, Tenma realises, there's a bitter chill in the air. 

When he looks at Sakuya again, he notices that Sakuya's mouth doesn't move. There's no paper fluttering in his hand, threatening to chase the wind, just his phone with the cherry pattern case that Citron gave him. Sakuya's sat down on the bench like he sometimes does when a scene calls for it, but he's slumped over. He looks drained.

So, like any good friend would, Tenma marches towards Sakuya and puts his hand on his shoulder.

"Sakuya," his voice booms. He nearly covers his mouth in shock at how loud he is. He clears his throat. "Sakuya," he tries again quieter, "are you alright?"

Sakuya looks back to face him. There's a lingering pink in the whites of his eyes. Tenma internally winces.

"Hi, Tenma." Sakuya beams, bright as ever, but there's a pain in it that makes Tenma furrow his brow. He doesn't respond to Tenma's question. Tenma doesn't press him for an answer.

Instead, Tenma carefully takes a seat beside Sakuya, just a few centimetres away, far enough to not be encroaching on Sakuya's personal space (and to not send Tenma into a frenzy) but close enough to be comforting. They sit quietly together, staring at the water. There's no comfort in the silence. 

Tenma feels a hot itch in his throat and in his palms. A voice (which sounds suspiciously like Yuki) in the back of his head yells at him to do something, to help Sakuya, but he doesn't know what to do. He shoves his hands in his trouser pocket, and retrieves an offering.

"... Do you want a tangerine?"

A beat.

“Tenma,” Sakuya starts in a curious tone, “why are you carrying an orange around in your pocket?” 

  
Tenma flushes. Why did he think that was a good idea? And why is he reaching back into his pocket? “I’m carrying  _ two tangerines _ in my pocket, thank you.” 

Sakuya stares at Tenma, then the two tangerines (in the same hand, mind you), then back up at Tenma. 

_ Holy shit _ , Tenma thinks, there’s literal  _ stars _ in Sakuya’s eyes. Entire galaxies. Tenma could go stargazing just looking at Sakuya like this. Why is Sakuya staring at him again? 

Then Sakuya starts  _ laughing _ . 

_ Nice one, hack, _ tiny Yuki spits in the back of his mind. 

“Tenma, you’re so cute!”

Tenma’s eyes widen, and he ignores the prickle of blood rushing to his cheeks. “I’m not!”   
  
“Then why are you carrying  _ tangerines _ on you? You were just at school!”

“I can bring tangerines with me to school!”

Sakuya laughs even harder. “But you kept them in your  _ pocket _ ! Why would you keep them in your pocket?”

“I don’t know!” Tenma cries. “What if I got hungry in class and needed to eat without grabbing my bento?”   
  
“You shouldn’t be eating in class anyways,” Sakuya tuts, before giggling again. 

Tenma gingerly takes the phone out of Sakuya’s hand, replaces it with a tangerine, then places the phone on Sakuya’s lap face down. He swears he doesn’t pout as he does. 

“Even still,” he says, looking down. “It’s handy to have a tangerine on you. Part of your 5-a-day! And since there’s two of them, that makes it two parts of my 5-a-day. I’m sacrificing my health for you by offering you this tangerine.” He sticks his nose up determinedly, and begins to peel the skin off his own tangerine. Sakuya does the same.

“But, Tenma, your 5-a-day doesn’t work like that.” Tenma looks fast at Sakuya, whose tangerine peel looks like it’s been fed through a paper shredder. His own doesn’t look much better. They abandon the peels in a small pile between them. “You’re meant to have five servings of  _ different _ fruits and vegetables to make sure that you have a variety of vitamins and minerals.” 

Tenma scrunches his nose at the mention of vegetables. “So what? I can have two tangerines. I’m allowed to have two tangerines instead of, say, a tangerine and a carrot. Tangerines are better than carrots anyways.” 

And while it isn’t quite normal, Tenma’s happy to fill the space. He tells Sakuya about his lunch with Juza and Taichi on the rooftop, and how Juza received a confession that he very politely dismissed along with the dark chocolate he was offered as a present. He tells Sakuya about Juza’s very out of character rant about people who keep giving him dark chocolate -- “'S my image, right? Seeming the type to like dark chocolate...” “Well…” -- and Taichi’s very  _ in _ character rant about how cool Juza is, and how it was so chic of him to just outright reject the confession -- “Wah, I want to receive confessions like that! How do I be as cool as you, Juza?” “Uh…” -- and every time Sakuya laughs and swings his legs Tenma feels like his chest opens a little more and he can breathe a little better. 

Sakuya pockets his phone and stands up all of a sudden, and Tenma looks up at him strangely. 

“It’s getting late,” Sakuya smiles softly as he gestures to the sunset. It’s nothing like the grin that he normally gives people but it seems impossibly warmer. Tenma nearly breaks a sweat. “I’ll go throw our tangerine peels in the bin, then let’s head home together.”   
  
Tenma nods, folding his hands in his lap. Pink and orange dances together in the sky as Sakuya bends forward slightly to grab the peels. When he straightens his back, he doesn’t move towards the bin. He just looks at Tenma.

Tenma tries to stop his eyes from bulging out his head as panic alarms sound off in his head. “Is something wrong?” 

“Oh, no,” Sakuya says. His eyes curl into half moons and he raises one of his fists. “Just thought you looked similar to this.” When he unfurls his hand, there’s a shred of tangerine peel in the centre of his palm. Tenma bristles. 

“Hah? You think I look like a tangerine?” Tenma gasps, offence  _ very much _ taken.

“Yeah! A  _ Ten-gerine _ , even!” Sakuya giggles. Tenma feels the red wash over him head to toe. 

He doesn’t even hear what Sakuya has to say after that. Something about how the orange matches his hair, and how the white would normally match his skin -- not right now though, it seems rather flushed -- oh my god, Sakuya’s  _ teasing _ him and he thinks he might explode. Sakuya’s eyes are so, so wide right now, and Tenma thinks he could go swimming in them, maybe drown in them, and he wouldn’t mind too much if that’s how his end comes. There isn’t a single evening that Tenma wouldn’t trade for this Sakuya: no red in the white of his eyes, just a tinge of orange from the sunset that waltzes with the pink of his iris. 

Then Sakuya blinks, and Tenma drops out of Sakuya's night sky eyes back to his spot by the riverside.

"I'll go bin these now," Sakuya sings with another gentle smile. Tenma feels himself melting into his seat.

When Sakuya returns, he offers a hand towards Tenma. Tenma gulps and takes it, pulling himself upwards. He can’t help but smile when Sakuya threads their fingers together instead of letting him go. He admired the peach that was reflected in Sakuya’s eyes for a second before taking a deep breath.

“Let’s head back to home, then.”

Tenma's lucky that Sakuya decided to walk in front of him to lead them back to the dorm. He doesn’t know if he’d be able to handle Sakuya making fun of him again.

Sakuya stops suddenly after a while. Tenma, head bowed, gracefully stumbles into Sakuya's back. Sakuya doesn't mention it. Instead, he turns to face Tenma, face unreadable.

“Tenma, thank you.”

Tenma looks up to meet Sakuya’s sparkling eyes. His heart thumped in his chest. “... For the tangerine?”

Sakuya giggles, and Tenma hears bells ring in his head. “I meant,” Sakuya says, exhaling softly, “for making me feel better. So, in a way, I guess I’m thankful for the tangerine, but I’m mostly thankful for you.”

Tenma coughs, heart rising in his throat, and adjusts his posture. Shoulders back, chin up: a hero’s pose. He recognises the shape of the dorms behind Sakuya and hopes no one's watching them. 

"You're welcome, Sakuya. Let's, uh, head inside."

**Author's Note:**

> pls leave kudos if u enjoyed + comment what u think :^]  
> -en


End file.
